Sat Sep 10 08:28:03 EDT 2005 rsc
    I put this in in spirit, but I disagree with your rationale.
    
    First, you already had this: you can say "no" or "uriel" to the
    prompts asking about vgasize, monitor, and mouseport, and then
    it won't start the graphics.
    
    Second, this change by itself will do nothing to make the install
    use less memory.  The images are kept in the kernel, and the kernel
    memory is set aside at boot time.  So it might make a difference in
    a VM, but on a real hw PC, unless you also set kernelpercent, you're
    not saving any memory.
    
    Third, if you don't have memory to put a few windows on the 
    screen, I see no reason to believe that things will improve in
    the future.  Are you going to be running Plan 9 in text mode
    forever?
    
    Fourth, and this is the real problem, I see no evidence that the
    graphics in the install are taking up the bulk of the memory
    footprint.  I just booted an install CD, let it start fossil
    and mount the CD, and then ran ps.  I also poked around in the
    kernel data structures with acid.  Here's what I found in user space:
    
    	total in use: 4794 pages = 19176kB
    		
    		 4888k - ram file system holding install file system
    		 1024k - rio
    		  564k - dossrv
    		 9156k - fossil
    		 2224k - 9660srv
    		------
    		17854k
    
    That leaves 1322k for the install programs themselves.
    The fossil footprint varies with the amount of memory 
    available to user space.  The rest are pretty much fixed.
    
    In the kernel, on a 640x480x8 screen with a handful of
    extra windows beyond the usual install windows, I'm using
    800kB for graphics memory.  Since there's no overlap the
    total memory needed for a regular install won't be any more
    than a full screen.  If you're running 1024x768x32 that's
    under 3MB.  Compare that to the 10MB base user space install
    footprint plus whatever fossil uses.  Cutting to 1024x768x8
    gets you under 1MB for the graphics, and is not nearly as
    crippled as running the entire install in text mode.
    
    I sure wish you guys would think these things through before
    jumping to conclusions.
    
    Russ